TEXAS FIGHTER DIES Sammy Vasquez, 35, Becomes MMA’s First Documented Fatality

The Harris County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed today that Sammy Vasquez, a 35-year-old mixed martial artist from Houston, Texas, died on Friday, Nov. 30. Vasquez’s death appears to be the first documented fatality resulting from a regulated MMA fight.

Vasquez (1-2) suffered a third-round knockout loss to Vince Libardi during a Renegades Extreme Fighting bout on Oct. 20 at Houston’s Toyota Center. After the fight, Vasquez was taken to Saint Joseph Medical Center’s Critical Care Unit, where he began a 47-day struggle.

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Phuck. Well this isn't going to blow over easy.

yea i dont wanna sound like im disrespecting the guy that died but this might be fake cause the guy who koed him is name vince limbardi maybe just a coincidence

Thats a shame. RIP Sammy, where ever you are, our prayers are with you and are with your family.


This isn't gonna be good for business.

Alright everyone, get ready to brace the crtics' storm, because we all know the onslaught is coming....RIP Sammy and best of wishes to his family...

My heart and thoughts are with those remembering Sammy Vasquez. It is horrible to hear this happened, I am deeply interested in learning more of the surrounding circumstances about this.

I see that Vasquez only had three fights, strange for a 35 year old I think. I wonder what the story is there. Also Libardi IS a fighter, in fact he has a loss to Cole Miller. It is NOT a hoax.

In preparation for all the critics I have a few facts for ya. If there are people attacking this wonderful, beautiful, incredible sport of sports we have to give em some facts about the sport, regulations, and help them learn the real beauty of this wonderful past time.

And if they still don’t get it, help them find something that could really use their protests.

Sky diving:
According to records maintained by USPA between 1991 and 2000, there were an average of 33 skydiving fatalities in the United States each year.

Alcohol:
According to the Mayo Clinic "each year more than 100,000 Americans die of alcohol-related causes and alcohol is a factor in nearly half of all U.S. traffic deaths."

Unjust War:
Almost 4,000 US solders dead in THIS Iraq, ignoring all the Iraqi Civilians.

Lets not even get started on deaths related to religions.

If they still don’t get it. We’ll hopefully this takes care of them.

Ya its a tough story to swallow, especially when you here he has a young child. War Sammy, where ever you are.

The first death in a sanctioned MMA event was only a matter of time, boxing has multiple deaths every year and it was going to happen eventually. I am glad that MMA had so many years without a death, and luckily there was no death in the early stages that would of given the critics the ammunition to really stop the sport in its infancy.

IMO MMA has entered the mainstream now and people understand it for what it is, a combat sport. BUT it is a combat sport that is unquestionably safer than Boxing, the stats speak for themselves. Any MMA critic worth his salt would have to mention in his article that this is the first death in 15 years of MMA events and because of that I think the as tragic as the Sammy's death is, it won't have a major impact on the sport.

My thoughts are with Sammy's Family and friends right now.

And to the poster who thought this might be a hoax its not, Sammy has been fighting for his life for a month now and his story has been know to the MMA community for the whole time.

His wife stated the blood clots, which were the complications leading to his death, weren't from the fight.

The Texas Boxing Commission is horrible, and it is entirely possible they did not perform thorough medical testing on Sammy.

It's a shame to hear he has passed and I grieve for his family, but I wonder if he should have been in the cage at all.

And even if this is attributed as the first ring death in MMA, I think the sport is mature enough to survive. We'll see what happens.

This is a sad day for the sport. My condolences go out to Sam along with his loved ones. If anything people should learn how dangerous of a sport it is and not to try at home.

Anybody see the fight? Hopefully the ref stoppage was legitimate and he didn't take any unnessecary punishment.

Read the article - nothing was out of the ordinary.

RIP Sammy.


Hopefully this will lead to more comprehensive pre-fight exams on lower level cards. I am not saying for sure that anything was done wrong here, but if Vasquez had potentially fatal bloodclots before the fight and they weren't found...

At least it wan't like a leavander situation where all the damage was caused from inside the ring.

Vasquez should have never been in there in the first place it appears.

This is very sad though.

R.I.P. Sammy Vasquez
Best of wishes to his family

Wow...didn't they just release him in the last couple of days?

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Posted by grappler0000

Wow...didn't they just release him in the last couple of days?

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Unfortunatly not, he was transferred from critical care to a local area hospice, perhaps he was transferred as it was apparent nothing could be done for him and it was decided a local hospice would be a more peacefull place for him to pass away.

RIP Sam and many condoloences to his friends and family.

I'm curious to see how this will effect the states that are currently debating whether to regulate/legalize MMA.

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Posted by EvilScott

His wife stated the blood clots, which were the complications leading to his death, weren't from the fight.

The Texas Boxing Commission is horrible, and it is entirely possible they did not perform thorough medical testing on Sammy.

It's a shame to hear he has passed and I grieve for his family, but I wonder if he should have been in the cage at all.

And even if this is attributed as the first ring death in MMA, I think the sport is mature enough to survive. We'll see what happens.

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I would really doubt that any medical examiner pre-fight, would seek to determine whether or not a fighter has such a pre-existing medical condition. To ascertain if someone had blood clots or a condition giving rise to these, he would probably have to undergo an MRI scan - which I doubt is normal procedure.

RIP.

My condolences to Sam and his family. At this stage I don't think it affects the sport but it affects his family for sure. I can't imagine losing my dad when I was 7.
I hope they can move on from this tragedy.

Horrible tragedy to such a young man and with a family. At this point in time it would be foolish for the media to jump on this and critisize the sport. This has happened in football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and boxing and it was bound to happen in MMA.

Let Sammy's family grieve in peace and if anything, look to something that may have gone wrong that could be corrected, but if all protocal was followed, than unfortunately this was bound to happen

First off my thoughts go out to his family.
Many sports are of a combative, "violent" or risky nature.
As unfortunate and terrible as it is, accidental deaths happen.
I won't even go into boxing...how many deaths a year?
As a race fan, I know that many drivers across America are killed every year.
Football and Hockey as well have had some terrible accidents.
Obviously when 2 men are fighting there is a risk of serious injury or death.
I have been a fan of MMA since 1993. How many 10's of 1000s of fights have there been?
I hope this isn't going to be a terrible blight or mark on the sport of MMA.
If it starts to...fight hard.
He would have wanted MMA to grow not diminish.
In general MMA is a relatively safe sport. For the most part there are top notch referees, proper medical staff and sensible rules.
The bottom line is choice really. The fighters make the choice to fight and we as fans make the choice to watch.
The bottom line is freedom. The freedom to choose.
Without choice we have nothing.
Once again my thoughts and hopes go out to his family.

Phuckin' duche bags. They mediclly released him a few days ago and then he dies. I blame the doctors...

R.I.P. Sammy

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Posted by NatedawgThaM

Phuckin' duche bags. They mediclly released him a few days ago and then he dies. I blame the doctors...

R.I.P. Sammy

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nah, he got released to a hospice unit, which is intended to make passing an "easier" experience for all involved... They didnt release him, in the normal sense of the word.

I thought the same thing before I found out that he was placed in Hospice.

Best wishes to his family...

Ya, the Sherdog reporter that first broke the news about Sammy being "Discharged" from the hospital sure didn't do his homework. As it turns out he was released from the hospital and taken to a Hospice for his final hours.

The general feel of the original article seemed to point that the discharge was good news and it mislead a lot of people, myself included. He quite simply as a reporter shouldn't of said anything until he had is facts straight.

Has anybody seen this fight? I'm just curious if there was a bad stoppage or something. I guess I'm just doing a lot of research and looking for any fact to prove MMA as a whole sport wasn't responsible. I guess I'm just in denial.

FFS ......................

That sherdog report was absolute bullshitt and gave us false hope, whoever fcked up that article needs shooting! I was somewhat foolish to take it as certain good news but even so this was gutting to see

Thoughts about what it does to the sport etc are improper in this thread IMO, that can all wait, what more important is that a good man who loved the sport and was a father to a 7 year old child has lost his life

RIP SAMMY

Strange that you guys misinterpreted it because I read the same sherdog article and it said he was transfered from the hospital to a hospice. Since I didn't know what a hospice was, I looked it up and understood that his damages were severe and that he probably wasn't going to make it.
At least for me, the first article gave me a hint that he wasn't going to last long and I wasn't surprised reading he had passed away.

People are too fast to jump on the sherdog hatewagon these days. Just like people were too fast in ruling out UFC´s fighters compared to Pride fighters in the past.
People tend to think they're rebelling when they're going against the big leagues (in this case Sherdog, being one of the bigger MMA news sites).

I went back and edited that article as soon as it became clear what had really happened, The orginal article said nothing of a hospice, just that he had been discharged from hospital. Once people in the know started posting that Sammy was still very near death he looked a little deaper and found the info about the hospice and changed the article. It was just bad reporting that offered a lot of false hope in what had become a very grave situation.